The use of hypnosis to treat alcoholism has been growing in recent years, buoyed by the success rates this powerful therapy can achieve with all types of addictions.
Using hypnosis to treat alcoholism makes sense if you consider the way in which hypnotherapy works - it is described as a state of heightened focus and awareness in which critical faculties are suppressed in a way that makes suggestions much more likely to be acted upon than in normal conditions.
It thus creates a blank canvas onto which the therapist can input whatever message the client chooses. Thus, if the client knows what they want, the therapist can help them to achieve it by talking to their subconscious mind at a very receptive time.
This can be very successful - a 2004 study from the American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis found a 77% success rate for addicts treated this way - success here being defined as being drug or alcohol free for at least 1-year.
Of course there are factors that will affect the success of this approach, one of the most crucial being how much the client truly wants to quit their addiction.
Although many people worry that if they are hypnotized the therapist will be able to make them do things they don't want to, the truth is that you will never do anything you don't want to while you are hypnotised.
For the addict, that of course means that if you don't really want to quit, the therapy will not be effective. However, for those who are really committed, then this can be a very effective way of helping you to quit, no matter what your addiction.
